Archive for the ‘Trade’

The percentage of high-tech exports (as a share of manufactured exports) from Kazakhstan have grown from just 4.46% in 1995 to 37.17% in 2014.

Over the past two decades, high-tech exports from Kazakhstan have been increasing steadily. The World Bank Group has been working since 2008 with the Kazakh Government and scientist groups to further expand the country’s high-tech exports in a number of sectors. Through the Technology Commercialization Project, 65 new startups received grant funding and business training to get their innovations out of the lab and into markets. The startups operate in a wide variety of industries including agriculture, health, medicine, gas, oil and robotics. Already 40 of these businesses have reached first sales.

Kazakhstan’s southern Zhambyl region is planning to build a ski base and recreation centre. These projects will attract tourists to the region, said the Director of the Regional Chamber of Entrepreneurs Karlygash Aralbekova at the International Investment Forum “TARAZ INVEST-2016” on 25 November 2016.

Four tourism projects are included in the Regional Map of Business Development: the ‘Kazakh Auli Koksai’ recreational tourist base worth 935 million tenge, the ‘Apple Orchard’ recreational tourist centre worth 85 million tenge, as well as projects for the construction of roadside services in the Zhualynsk and Merke districts of the Zhambyl region, worth 402 and 700 million tenge respectively.

Swiss businesspeople have met with local counterparts in search of new cooperation options and discussed plans for expanding partnerships. In particular, foreign investors have proposed a number of interesting projects related to banking, transport logistics, construction, healthcare and tourism. They are interested in Kazakhstan because it provides them with a link to the Chinese market. From there, they are also ready to enter the Russian market.

One of the outcomes of these meetings has been the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Kazakh Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce Switzerland-Russia/CIS.

During the course of the negotiations, a Swiss construction company offered to build a brick factory in Kazakhstan. As noted by investors, a special combination of cement and wood will enable homes to retain heat better. One of the advantages of the project, according to business officials, is the low cost of products. In addition, there will be no need to import building materials from abroad.

Individuals connected with EXPO 2017 unveiled the designs of the Kazakh, German and Chinese pavilions as the buildings were transferred to the participating countries on Oct. 31.

Chairman of Astana EXPO 2017 national company Akhmetzhan Yessimov noted construction of the main pavilion, informally known as the “Ball” or “Sphere,” will be finished by the New Year’s. Work on the interior will then begin. “The ‘ball’ is the main pavilion. It will be completed by the end of this year, but there is a lot of work on the content filling, which will take place until May of next year. There will be eight floors and each will disclose certain themes of the exhibition: space, solar, wind, water and so on. The same can be said of the thematic pavilions; they are completed and now the work on the content will begin. The most important thing is the construction of all the facilities will be completed for the New Year, in addition to the Congress Hall and the hotel. They will be needed only during the exhibition, so all works are on schedule. In addition, public areas will be completed in the spring,” he said as the ceremony.

The details of the German pavilion, called Energy Turnaround, were explained by German Ambassador in Kazakhstan Rolf Mafael. Astana Akim (mayor) Asset Issekeshev was present for the event.

“It means a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy-effective management. The national pavilion will be in four stages. First, visitors are offered to feel the new world of the future of energy. In the second, the audience will be presented with a new energy map of the world and the layout of the wind park in Yereimentau. In the next room, visitors can get acquainted with the ‘smart’ city, like in a computer – the prospect of increasing or decreasing from a global to a local perspective. In the last room, we will feel what the energy turnaround is. All visitors at the beginning will get a small drive stick and with it they will be able to activate all the exhibits – to be able to touch and study them. At the end, they will accumulate energy and see what they can do with this energy. This is a great laser show,” he said.

China is second in the world in renewable energy sources (RES), noted Chinese EXPO 2017 Commissioner Wang Tszinchzhen.

“We want to take this opportunity to show our achievements in the field of renewable energy. We are also going to present a number of events on the topic of technology, for example in the field of tourism, as well as take part in the forums on the subject of technology. China’s largest technology company will present their achievements. We will hold a few forums on this subject and we are prepared in this regard to support the Kazakh company. We are ready to assist not only in the energy sector, but also in the agro-industrial complex and other areas. We invite all of the business community to our pavilions to discuss ways of cooperation,” he said.

The completion of five key exhibition objects was also announced – International Pavilion, EXPO Town with 1,374 rooms, EXPO office building, Department of the Interior and Energy Research Centre.

The chairman of the board of NC “Astana EXPO-2017” Akhmetzhan Yessimov met with the Ambassador George A. Krol in Astana on October 7. They discussed the prospects of the U.S. participation in EXPO 2017 exhibition in Astana.

The 104th states and 17 international organisations have confirmed their participation in EXPO 2017. 99 commissioners have been appointed and 82 participation agreements have been signed.

Sponsors have invested over €125 million into the organization and holding of the International specialized exhibition EXPO-2017 so far, CEO of JSC “National Company “Astana EXPO-2017” Akhmetzhan Yessimov said at the meeting with diplomatic corps in Astana.

“We pay utmost attention to the content of international pavilions. Only five pavilions are still empty and waiting for the countries to fill them in,” he noted.

Yessimov also declared that an American company Burson Marsteller will be responsible for a large-scale PR campaign.

Burson-Marsteller is a leading global public relations and communications firm founded in 1953. It is based in NYC, has offices in 98 countries worldwide.

Kazakhstan will extend until 2022 a program that provides college education to young Afghans and will continue to give technical and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov announced Wednesday in Brussels.

“Along with the rest of the international community, Kazakhstan is committed to sustainable and secure development in Afghanistan,” Idrissov told the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan, at which delegates from around the world gathered to offer their financial and political support to the war-torn Central Asian country.

Idrissov said he was “convinced that the revival of Afghanistan will have a great positive effect on the situation of our region.”

“The international community and the UN must continue providing Kabul with comprehensive support and assistance” throughout the rest of the so-called “decade of transformation” until 2024, he added.

Kazakhstan’s top diplomat recalled that his country provides technical assistance and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in the framework of bilateral agreements and multilateral forums.

He stressed that the implementation of projects in Afghanistan is one of the priorities of KazAID – the Kazakh agency for international aid and development – that has worked with other countries in projects to strengthen economic independence and the rights of Afghan women.

Kazakhstan has so far provided Afghanistan 20,000 tons of food products valued at some $20 million, he said.

Idrissov also noted that Kazakhstan has implemented a “joint action plan” for Afghanistan that has provided more than $2 million for the construction of a school, a hospital and roads, and $1.5 million to build four new bridges.

“Taking into account the importance of investing in human capital” and at the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan (Nursultan Nazarbayev), about 1,000 young Afghans began receiving an education at Kazakh universities in 2010 in areas such as medicine, agriculture and engineering,” he said.

With a total cost of $50 million, Idrissov said his country is now committed to expanding the educational program “until 2022.”

Moreover, in line with the goal of “building a State led by Afghans,” Idrissov said that Afghanistan “must continue reforms to transform the country into a stable and democratic nation.”

“Today and in the future the key to stabilizing Afghanistan is genuine regional cooperation,” he said, and vowed that Kazakhstan would “support initiatives focused on strengthening connectivity in the region.”

He recalled that the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway was launched in 2014 and that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan section is to be completed this year.

The implementation of this and other similar projects, “demonstrates the potential of Afghanistan as a gateway between Central and South Asia,” Idrissov said.

Kazakh officials have approved the establishment of a factory for Hikma Pharmaceuticals with a starting capital of $150 million. Both sides have also agreed to examine the possibility of establishing an air shipping company to increase the volume of commercial exchange, as well as the possibility of exporting to nearby markets.

Join us behind the scenes of our Kazakhstan Triangle adventure through the eyes of Kirill Korobkov.

One thing that made the Kazakhstan trip special was that we decided to film a lot of background action and create a photo essay with our mobile phones.

Each time you travel, so much interesting stuff just doesn’t make it into the main edit, where running time has to be a consideration. Sometimes, the filmer just doesn’t have time to capture everything, and also the warm-up sessions can be more fun than the big moves.

With less pressure in front of a friend’s phone, people tend to try different maneuvers.

Kazakhstan is a really photogenic country: it was easy and entertaining to document the adventure from riders’ point of view. Every stop of the trip was special in its own way, from the futuristic Astana to the Ustyurt National Reserve, the 72-hour-long train ride to the Aral Sea – which turned into the Aral Desert – we were lucky to visit some of the most interesting locations the country has to offer.

I was the guide and the translator for the trip, but I also gathered up some photos along the way, which you can check out above.

Kazakhstan now has a surplus electricity generation capacity of around 4-5 thousand MW per year, and is considering the possibility of electricity export and transit, according to Bakytzhan Kazhiyev, chairman of the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC).

Kazhiyev said China needs very large volumes of electricity: “[The Chinese] are not very much interested in electricity supplies to the border region of Xinjiang; they need power supplies to central China. We are negotiating such supplies with our Chinese colleagues.”

Speaking about the possible exportation of electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Kazhiyev said that these countries do have a demand for power, but “we have no transmission grids, no possibility to transfer surplus electricity that exists in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan Railways has announced that the volume of transit container shipping on the China-Europe-China route running through Kazakhstan increased by 205% in January-April, 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.

Cargo shipping between Europe-China through Kazakhstan significantly reduces transportation times compared to the equivalent journey by sea or through Russia.

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Kazakhstan Chamber of Commerce in USA is located in New York. KazCham is an independent chamber associated with state agencies and businesses in Kazakhstan with the aim to provide members with current information on the political and investment climate, assist them in establishing government and business contacts, conduct searches of buyers and partners, organize forums and seminars, PR campaigns. Contact us at info@kazcham.com or follow on twitter.com @kazcham.